You get three estimates for the same job. One is $4,200, one is $6,800, and one is $9,500.

Most people start by asking why the spread is so wide. That is the wrong first question. The right one is: which of these three pieces of paper actually tells me what I am buying?

Usually only one of them does, and it is not always the expensive one.

I have been a painting contractor for over a decade. I have written thousands of quotes and I have lost jobs to numbers I could not compete with, some of which were from good painters and some of which were from people who had no idea what the job cost them. Here is what should be on the page, and what it means when it is missing.

The price is the least useful thing on the estimate

A number by itself tells you almost nothing, because you cannot tell what it includes.

Two painters can quote the same house and mean completely different work. One is putting two coats on your walls after patching and sanding. The other is putting one coat over whatever is there now and calling it done. Both wrote “paint interior” on the estimate. Only one of those is going to look right in three years.

The spread in painting quotes is real and it is enormous. We watched a hundred painters price the identical bedroom and the answers ran from $200 to $2,350. Some of that is genuine difference in quality and overhead. A lot of it is that nobody wrote down what they were actually agreeing to do.

The quote is where that gets settled. If it is not on the page, it is not in the price.

The checklist

Here is what a professional estimate should contain. Not all of it fits on one sheet, and that is fine. A good quote runs two or three pages, and that length is a feature.

Who they are

• Legal business name and physical address, not just a cell number
• License number where your state requires one
• Proof of general liability insurance, and workers compensation if they have employees
• A written estimate, signed and dated, with an expiration

That last one matters more than people think. If a painter is not carrying workers compensation and someone gets hurt on a ladder at your house, that can become your problem. Ask for the certificate. A professional will have it ready and will not be offended.

What is actually being painted

This is the part that separates a real quote from a number on a napkin.

• Each surface listed separately: walls, ceilings, trim, doors, windows, closets
• Room by room, or at minimum area by area
• Square footage or linear footage where it applies
• Anything specifically excluded, in writing

“Paint the interior” is not a scope. “Paint the interior except the garage, the unfinished basement, and the closet interiors” is a scope. The difference between those two sentences is a fight in week two.

Closets are the classic one. So are ceilings. If the quote does not say, assume it is not included and ask.

How the surface gets prepared

If I could get homeowners to look at one section of an estimate, it would be this one. Prep is where the money is, where the quality is, and where the cheap bid gets cheap.

The estimate should say what happens before any paint goes on:

• Patching nail holes, dents, and cracks
• Sanding, and how much
• Caulking gaps at trim and corners
• Spot priming, or full priming, and where
• Pressure washing and scraping on an exterior
• What happens to failing or peeling paint
• Repair of damaged drywall or wood, or whether that is excluded

A painter who skips prep can beat a thorough painter’s price by thirty percent and the job will look fine for about six months. You will not be able to tell the difference at the walk-through. You will be able to tell in the second winter.

If the quote says nothing about prep, that is not an oversight. That is the answer.

Products and coats

• Brand and product line by name. Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint, Benjamin Moore Regal Select, whatever it is
• Sheen for each surface. Flat, eggshell, satin, semi-gloss
• Number of coats, per surface
• Primer specified where it is needed
• Who supplies the paint, and what happens to leftovers

“Quality paint” is not a product. Paint lines within the same brand vary by a large margin in price and in durability, and the difference between a contractor-grade line and a premium line on a whole-house repaint is real money. You are entitled to know which one you are getting.

On coats: two is standard for a color change or a repaint of a worn surface. One coat is sometimes legitimate on a fresh repaint of the same color in good condition. If a quote says one coat and does not explain why, ask.

Color

• Colors specified by name and code where they are chosen
• A color allowance or a process for choosing later
• Whether accent walls or multiple colors per room cost extra
• Who pays if you change your mind after the paint is bought

Custom and deep-base colors sometimes cost more per gallon. Worth knowing before you fall in love with one.

Logistics

• Start date and estimated duration
• Working hours
• Who moves furniture, and who is responsible if something gets damaged
• How floors, fixtures, and landscaping get protected
• Where crews park, where they set up, whether they need bathroom access
• Daily cleanup and end-of-job cleanup
• Debris and paint disposal

Money

• Total price, and whether it is fixed or an estimate that can move
• Deposit amount and when it is due
• Progress payment schedule for larger jobs
• Final payment terms and what triggers them
• How change orders are handled and priced, in writing

On deposits: a reasonable deposit covers material and secures your spot on the calendar. Something in the range of ten to thirty percent is normal on a residential job. A demand for half or more before anyone shows up is worth questioning.

After the work

• Warranty period and exactly what it covers
• Whether it covers labor, materials, or both
• What voids it
• Touch-up policy and how long after completion
• Punch list process before final payment

Red flags

Any one of these on its own might be fine. Two or three together and I would keep looking.

A single number and nothing else. No scope, no products, no prep. There is nothing to hold anyone to.

Verbal only. “I’ll email you something later” and then a text with a number in it.

No products named. Either they have not decided, which means they will decide based on what is cheapest that week, or they do not want you comparing.

Nothing about prep. Covered above. This is the big one.

A price dramatically below the others. Not a little below. A lot below. Somebody who is thirty or forty percent under two other bids has either missed something in the scope or is not accounting for their own labor, and in either case the shortfall comes out somewhere. Usually as extras, or as a job that gets rushed at the end.

Pressure to sign today. Discounts that expire this afternoon are a sales tactic, not a pricing reality.

Large cash deposit up front. Especially cash specifically.

No license or insurance offered. You should not have to ask twice.

“We’ll figure it out as we go.” For anything.

Questions worth asking

If a quote is thin but you like the painter, these five questions will fill most of the gaps.

1. How many coats, and on which surfaces?
2. What exactly does prep include on this job?
3. Which product and which line, and why that one for my house?
4. Who is actually doing the work, your crew or subcontractors?
5. What is not included in this price?

That last question is the most useful one you can ask any contractor about anything. A good painter will have a ready answer, because he thought about it while he was writing the quote.

What a detailed quote does for you

It is not about protecting yourself from a bad painter, although it does that.

A specific quote means you and the painter are agreeing to the same job. Most disputes on residential painting work are not fraud. They are two people who genuinely believed different things about what was included, and neither one wrote it down.

When the scope is on the page, the walk-through at the end is a comparison against a document instead of a negotiation between two memories.

A note to the painters reading this

You are probably a large share of the traffic on this page, and you know all of it already.

The thing worth noticing is that every item on this checklist costs you nothing to include and protects you more than it protects the homeowner. The painter who specifies the product, states the coats, describes the prep, and lists what is excluded is the painter who never has the week-two conversation about the closets.

It is also the fastest way to stop competing with the guy who wrote a number on the back of a business card. You cannot beat that number. You can make it obvious what it leaves out.

Here is the method behind building one.